Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-12-10

OuRgenlal TREND OF the FroStburS JOURNAL
| remarks as follows:
Our weekly coal trade statement shows that
| TO date the Cumberland coal region is near
| 100000 tons ahead of last seasons output.
| The years total will reach considerably over
| three million tOns.--Cumberland Ne,cs.
Not bit of it.
In the first place there is no Cumberland
region" and in the second, if such region
existed it would not include the Elk Garden
region.
| We will not consume space by endeavoring
| to convince our mountain friend that there is
| Cumberland coal region. any more than
we would strive to show him there was a
Potomac river, if he chose to call it the
Rubicon. His skepticism ON this point is
| deep.rooted and beyond argument. But we
! beg leave to say that. despite geographical
barriers, the Elk Garden region is included
in the Cumberland so far as the official re-
ports are concerned, and is SO classified by
the Maryland papers generally, and by the
mining press. This, of course. relates only
to totals, because in the same report the Elk
Garden shipments are clearly set aside by
themselves and hence nobody need be de-
ceived as to the exact state of affairs. There
exists no good reason why the Elk Garden
belt of coal should not be grouped, generally
speaking, with that of the Maryland region,
as it is geogra aph,cally near and in other ways
1t is convenient to group it so, and as long as
nobody objects but the JOURNAL, 1t will like
ly remain so.-Cumberland News.
A shrewd statement, perhaps the
cleverest piece of sophistry ever con-
trived by or for the Neavs. 1t fur
nishes the first confession of a faith
that we have long believed laid dor
mant in the Cumberland mind
that the accidents of geographical
artliice should take precedence of the
fixities of nature-that is, when the
accidents suit Cumberland. 1t as
sumes that the JOURNAL might dis
cover fitness III calling the Potomac
river after an Italo Cisalpine stream,
and by implication argues hence that
the continental importation of British
nomenclature, in one instance at
least. furnished sufficient excnse for
Il misnomer which might obliterate
all native distinctions. The wonder
is that the Potomac river is
not called the "Frith of Solway,"
and Wills Greek the "Derwent
river;" that Willis mountain IS
not "Saddleback," Dams mountain
''Skiddaw," and Knobly "Hellvel-
lyn." In these cases there would
have been day no Allegany range
of mountains, just as there appears
from the Neaos' standpoint to be no
Georges Greek.
But, seriously, do the official re-
ports, made up and first printed in
Cumberland, and from which the
mining press gets its cue-does even
a custom of thus misnaming the re-
gion make truth out of falsehood :?
Does it destroy the fact that the re-
gion's name is Georges Greek? If
so, then the great man who said that
no amount of lying can destroy the
truth was himself favorite son of
the father of liars.
But the worst part of the whole
business is the degradation to which
the region mas been subjected by the
misnomer. Inferior Goals of all de
scriptions have crowded the market
under the double distilled lie of
"Cumberland COAL" There is hard
ly soft coal field in Appalachian
territory that has not some kind of a
"Cumberland coal" to palm off on the
gudgeons of the trade-a variegated
fraud that could never have been
worked had Georges Greek" been
sent out into the world as the one
and only genuine name of the best
steam raising fuel in the universe.
1t should be a matter for great sor-
row, therefore, that the official re-
ports include the Elk Garden re.
region. They afford what is other
wise officially regarded a competing re-
gion all the prestige that the quality
of our coal has through decades of
struggle won for us, and we get
nothing in return.
And this sense of sorrow is height
ened immeasurably by the Ners' as
surance that ''as long as nobody OBJ
jeets" to this fraud "but the JOUR
NAL, it will likely remain so.;'
But since the region has emerged
from the dominion of the knights OF
Labor it has suffered from nothing
so despotic or hurtful as its name.
Its emancipation should be complete.
One of the worst sovereigns among
the immoralitles is lie.
One of the worst lies is the over.
worked lie.
And one of the worst overworked
lies is "the Cumberland coal region